This
is a the final report of the manage vegetation in the Wildland Urban
Interface (WUI) zone in the San Mateo County lands centered on the
Five Points Vicinity within the Pescadero Creek watershed. The work
consisted of cutting back the overgrowth of vegetation along fire
roads, public and private access roads in the vicinity. The work
covers the primary and emergency ingress and egress for the Portola
Heights neighborhood off of 22400 Skyline Blvd (California Route 35)
in La Honda.

The
project entailed 2152 hours by the Monterey Bay Center of the
California Conservation Corps clearing a “shaded fuel break”
along routes used by over 30 families in the community covering 3.75
miles (up to 50 foot width) totaling 18ac of brush clearing. Any
fires in the area would threaten the WUI and the various creeks that
are part of the watershed. The headwaters of Peters Creek, Slate
Creek and Bear Creek all begin within the Five Points Vicinity of
Portola Heights.

The
project was deemed a complete success by members of the community.

An
accomplished goal of this project was to open up a second exit
through Midpenninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) lands in
the event of an emergency. The route of 5 Points Road to School Rd
to Ward Rd to Skyline Blvd now provides a southern emergency access
route for CalFIRE and San Mateo County Fire vehicles and personnel to
contain or control fires that might occur within the area.

The
project was initiated by the Portola Park Heights Property Owners
Association in their May, 2014 meeting. The original project
proposal was completed August 11, 2014 and submitted for review by
CCC personnel. The project was accepted August 28th.through
the California Proposition 40 funds under Project Number B15-2325
resulting in a grant of 2152 hours. It was determined that a
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Notice of Exemption (NOE)
was required for the project. The CEQA NOE was signed by MROSD, a
state agency, and filed with the San Mateo County Recorders Office on
September 30th, 2014. The mandatory 35-day waiting period
for the CEQA NOE expired November 5th, 2014 without
comment. CCC requested additional forester's and archaeologist's
reports that were exchanged between MROSD and CCC from December 2014
through January 2015. The project was planned to start on February
2nd, 2015 and commenced on time. The project completed
March 5th, 2015.

The
original proposal (August, 2014) included fire roads of School Rd and
Ward Rd (1.1mi). MROSD used their own crews to create a shaded fuel
break of these roads later in the summer. As such, Sorich Rd (1.1mi)
were substituted for these roads and inspection by CCC personnel
confirmed this was part of the same WUI area approved as part of the
project.

Approximately
half the residents live on Doherty Ridge Rd area and half on the Long
Ridge Rd area (see map, Fig 2.). After completion of this project
three specific evacuation scenarios exist for residents. The first
covers a wildland fire in Bear Creek area of the community, the second a fire in the Peters Creek area.

and
Doherty Ridge. Residents can evacuate and emergency vehicles can
enter through Portola Heights Rd and travel along Long Ridge and
Doherty Ridge roads. This was the only route open before the project
but Portola Heights Rd has now been widened through the work of CCC.
The second emergency scenario involves a wildland fire in the Peters
Creek vacinity that may extend up the Devils Canyon toward Portola
Heights Rd. Now, thanks to this project, Long Ridge Rd and Diablo
Way residents can traverse the cleared Cut-Across Rd biway to Doherty
Ridge, Five Points, School and Ward Rds out to Skyline. The third
emergency scenario covered by this project involves a wildland fire
in the Slate Creek area. Such a fire might would block the Five
Points Rd exit and potentially upper Long Ridge Rd as it connects to
Portola Heights Rd. Thus, Doherty Ridge Rd. residents can evacuate
across the now-cleared Cut-Across Rd. biway and join other residents
evacuating through Sorich Rd. and Portola Heights Rd.

The
Five Points Vegetation Management Project came in on time and under
budget. See Table 2.

Table
2. Five Points Vegetation Management Project Budget

Community
monitary contribution for this project totaled $3700. Funds were
used during the coordination of the project and for support services.
When it became apparent that CCC equipment breakdown during the
project threatened the ability to complete it on time, the community
purchased a Stihl pole saw and Huskvarna chain saw for use by the
crew. A second pole saw was loaned from the SSFSC to the CCC crews.
The equipment was the same model numbers already in use by the crew.
The equipment remains with PPHPOA for future shaded fuel break
maintenance during regularly scheduled “road crew” work.

“Thank you for the hard work setting up the shaded fuel break.”

Ann, Portola Heights Resident.

Contributing
significantly to the success of the project were the volunteers of
Portola Heights. Over a dozen people were part of the effort to
provide traffic control, taping off sensitive plants along the
routes, chainsaw sharpening, coordination and supervision throughout
the project. On a typical day two to four residents volunteered,
totaling approximately 560 hours over the lifetime of the project.

The
crews carried out a “shaded fuel break” along the project routes,
which covered areas from 2500ft elevation to 1000ft elevation. The
vegetation included Douglas fir, live oak, tan oak, buckeye trees and
coyote brush with coastal redwood at lower elevations. About 20ft on
either side of the road was cleared in such a way as to keep
potential ground fires from jumping into the tree canopy. Trees less
than 6” at chest height were removed and the remaining trees were
“limbed up” to a height of 8 ft. The areas were dense enough
that few areas required removal of underbrush. When sensitive trees
or shrubs were part of the under brush, they were left untouched and
surrounding trees were “limbed up” to 10 or 12ft to allow for an
8ft clearance from the remaining brush. Brush in the sensitive creek
beds were chipped and scattered. In other areas brush was lopped and
scattered and cut up so that it was lower than 16” from the ground.

“I am sure our entire community will be more secure in this
drought fire season knowing our exits are safer and more accessible
for residents and first responders.”

Lesley, Portola Heights Resident

Monterey
Bay CCC crews were led by crew chiefs Dylan, Anthony, Marcus and
Caesar with Dylan's crew on site the entire 28 day project. Crew
performance was rated exceptional by the residents, FireSafe Council
board members, MROSD and CalFIRE representatives. CCC Conservation
Supervisor for the Monterey Bay Center Janet Wohlgemuth guided the
project from the start. Associate Environmental Planner for CCC Jed
McLaughlin guided the CEQA filing process. Brian Malone headed up
the efforts of the MROSD. SSFSC President Bill Guenther oversaw the
entire project. Project Manager and SSFSC member Mark Haynie rounded
out the management team.

“I wish there was a choice for extra strongly agree. Thanks for
the useful and beautiful work.”

Lee,
Portola Heights Resident

The
project was documented with before/after pictures along the routes.The next section documents the project.

The
Portola Heights community held a “thank you” party for the three
CCC crews working on the final day of the project.

Fig
6. CCC Crew members enjoying the “thank you” party.

Fig 7. CCC Crew with other residents of the community.

Next
Steps

A
“phase 2” of the Five Points Vegetation Management project is
required to open up feeder roads to the emergency ingress and egress
roads covered in this project. The follow-on project is described in
a later proposal.

During
February, 2015 a severe downpour occurred. Although none of the
project roads were affected, School Rd (a continuation of the
evacuation route connected to Five Points Rd) was severely damanged
when a culvert overflowed on MROSD parcels. Because the goal of this
project was to open a fire road through this route, School Rd must be
repaired before the start of the fire season. PPHPOA will petition
MROSD to make these repairs as soon as possible.